United States President George Bush, facing a summer of revolt from a nation that believes fiercely in its right to affordable petrol, on Tuesday unveiled plans to try to stop a rapid rise in prices at the pump. In a speech to the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington, Bush acknowledged that the high prices were hurting ordinary Americans as the holiday season approaches.
Sitting on thin foam mattresses sprawled across a crude cement floor in drought-stricken northern Kenya, dozens of mothers nurse emaciated babies as flies hover around mosquito netting. The odours of medicine and sweat mixed with the stench of disease hang in the foetid air under the iron roof of this hospital annex.
A man believed to be al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on Tuesday showed his face publicly for the first time since the insurgency began three years ago. Dressed in black and his chest covered with ammunition pouches, he made an appeal to Iraqi Sunnis to support his fight against the United States-led coalition and its Iraqi supporters.
The French President, Jacques Chirac, on Tuesdya unveiled what he hopes will be his great legacy to France’s struggle against the global dominance of the United States: a series of technological projects including a European search engine to rival Google.
Hundreds of thousands of people across Europe will on Wednesday commemorate the 20th anniversary of the world’s worst human-made disaster — when Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power complex exploded during a routine safety test and sent a plume of radioactivity a mile high to drift over 40% of Europe and as far away as Japan.
Gathered on the seafront outside the Al Capone cafe on Tuesday, a weary looking knot of men stared silently at the 600cm-wide crater that had appeared on the cobbled street, as if willing it to disappear. All around lay shards of glass, scraps of clothing and discarded rubber flip-flops. ”It was like a war,” said one of the men, Hani Bivars, unable to tear his gaze from the crater.
Sri Lanka’s air force resumed retaliatory strikes against Tamil Tiger positions on Wednesday, police said amid fears that the country was sliding back to full-scale war after a four-year truce. Air attacks were carried out in the north-eastern district of Trincomalee where the military bombed a cluster of boats of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Tuesday night.
The unit trust industry has had another bumper quarter with the most inflows ever received. The industry took R19,7-billion of new investments, of which R13-billion came from retail sales, which are from individual -investors. However, this is not an indication that South Africans are starting to save more, writes Maya Fisher-French.
After eight years of unprecedented economic growth and equity and bond market strength, investors have started to question whether emerging markets will be able to maintain their positive momentum. Annual inflows into emerging market funds reached record levels of more than $15-billion last year.
The unit trust industry has had another bumper quarter with the most inflows ever received. The industry took R19,7-billion of new investments, of which R13-billion came from retail sales, which are from individual -investors. However, this is not an indication that South Africans are starting to save more, writes Maya Fisher-French.